


The White Night

by KingHorseHead



Series: Jaune the Ladykiller [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: A literal White Knight, F/M, Neo's Revenge, Why do I like killing Jaune so much, castle busting, lots of flashbacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:16:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingHorseHead/pseuds/KingHorseHead
Summary: She let out a scream and clutched Jaune tightly, moving him away from the man behind her. “He’s not dead!” She wailed. Her eyes shut tight. “He’s not, Qrow, he’s alive!”Qrow would have passed it off as simple hysteria, but he knew better. His eyes flickered back to Jaune. He stared at the young man with unwavering focus. Weiss could still be heard whispering to herself, repeating to herself that Jaune was going to be fine. He moved slowly around and in towards Jaune. Qrow pulled away with wide eyes at the first sign of life.“He’s breathing.”





	1. Breaking and Exiting

None of them would ever forget the scene before them. A single moment extending into a million, with every little detail playing into the larger story that the room told.  
The smell of blood was still rich and fresh, pooled in various places all around the room. One would think that an entire massacre occurred in that room.  
There were only two figures inside.  
The first of the two, kneeling over the other, was the cleanest thing in the entire building. Her clothes were a little dirtied, and her body having suffered a few cuts and bruises, she still appeared as the flawless angel she had always been seen as. Even now, she was beautiful as she wept for the one below her. Her call was one of helplessness, of desperation. She kept telling herself that help would arrive, but her faith in her own statements shrank with each passing day.  
Cradled in her arms was a young man. He received the opposite treatment of the woman. His clothes were reduced to shreds of cloth that had yet to be torn, cut, or ripped off of his body, his body covered in a labyrinth of wounds. He was lifeless. Unmoving and unbreathing.  
Even with the slow creaking of the door, the white-haired beauty didn’t dare look away from the man in her arms. So much could happen in such a short period of time, she was afraid that he would leave her if she looked away for even a second. She was muttering, whispering broken words in a broken voice to the one she could call her savior.  
“Weiss!” A young girl called from the door, looking at the scene with abject horror. She had taken only a single step before her brain began to process everything in front of her.  
Many more figures stood behind the girl, looking in through the tiny doorway to see the aftermath of chaos that lay inside.  
None dared to move. All of them with the exception of one were stuck looking at Weiss hysterically holding onto that boy for dear life.  
The one who did step forward was much older. More than three times the age of the young girl in front. He moved her aside to step in.  
“Weiss, it’s us.” His voice was old and gravely, tired from a millennium of similar sights. “Ruby, Yang, their charming uncle, Blake, Jaune’s team. We’re all here to get you out.”  
He had seen many things in his long life as a huntsman. Nothing could ever prepare you for the death of someone close to you, and it looked like Weiss was going mad over the thought.  
He knelt down slowly. His hand rose only an inch before it fell back down. If only her sister was here. Maybe not even she would be able to help Weiss right now.  
“Come on, girlie. We have a bullhead with your name on it. Your sister’s waiting in Vale right now, ready to see you safe.” He tried talking to her. Only she knew what had happened within these walls, and given the body count outside, it was safe to say that she was the last living person to know it.  
She mumbled something, not daring to look away. The self proclaimed charming uncle leaned in closer, hoping to hear it again.  
“Jaune…” Her voice was barely above a whisper.  
“We’ll take care of him.” His eyes flickered to the young man in Weiss’ arms. His eyesight was perfect, but even he thought that movement was a trick of the light.  
She let out a scream and clutched Jaune tightly, moving him away from the man behind her. “He’s not dead!” She wailed. Her eyes shut tight. “He’s not, Qrow, he’s alive!”  
Qrow would have passed it off as simple hysteria, but he knew better. His eyes flickered back to Jaune. He stared at the young man with unwavering focus. Weiss could still be heard whispering to herself, repeating to herself that Jaune was going to be fine. He moved slowly around and in towards Jaune. Qrow pulled away with wide eyes at the first sign of life.  
“He’s breathing.”  
He was shocked to even be saying it. Qrow had seen a lot of things, but everyone had a limit. Jaune had obviously been pushed past that and far beyond, but was still somehow hanging in there.  
Qrow spun to look at the group of teenagers in the doorway. “One of you let the pilot know we have injured! We need that Bullhead ready to go as soon as the last foot hits the plane!”  
He could hear several pairs of feet leaving to go and spread the news. He wasn’t the best at this whole comforting thing, but he had to be for his nieces’ sakes.  
Weiss wasn’t strong enough to keep Qrow and one of her own teammates from separating her and Jaune. Even after what had seemed like a lifetime, Weiss could never forget those long black tresses, topped off with a bow of a similar shade.  
Blake, who had taken Jaune while Qrow held Weiss, leaned in close to examine Jaune herself. She gave an affirmative nod and picked him up fully. While Pyrrha would be equally capable of handling Jaune safely to the Bullhead, Blake was closer, and had a natural advantage when it came to looking for sure signs of life.  
Weiss had attempted to kick and scream her way out of Qrow’s grasp, but sleep quickly overtook her after she saw the piles of dead bodies on her way out of the secluded building.  
When the exterior doors opened to the real world, the group felt the cold through their bones. It was rather fortunate that Jaune and Weiss’ attackers knew how to start fires, otherwise they would have been found as popsicles.  
As planned, the airship was ready to go as soon as everyone was on board, and was making a beeline to the city of Vale. Additional preparations needed to be made for both of the former captives.  
And Maybe someone could find out what exactly happened between now and their disappearance.


	2. A month in the making

He didn’t move.   
She didn’t expect him to, not after the last session.   
She hadn’t seen his eyes in quite some time. Funny, how she wouldn’t have missed those sapphire blue eyes a month ago if she never saw them again.   
She’d do anything to see them again.  
It’d been five days since Weiss and Jaune had been rescued by their respective teams. As soon as she was coherent, she demanded to know how long they had been gone. She had lost a sense of time being trapped in that windowless room for so long.   
Three weeks they had been missing. Trapped in a timeless hell for twenty-one days. Weiss was sure that it had been months, but the clocks and calendars didn’t lie.   
Her eyes were stuck on the sleeping boy laying before her. She could still remember when she had made her request to Professor Ozpin.  
He told her that her mental healing process would require them to be situated in different rooms, possibly even on the opposite ends of the hallway. She set her terms, refusing to obey the headmaster for the time being.   
“When he gets up…” She whispered, her voice accompanied only by the repeated beeps of the machines behind Jaune. “When you get up… I’ll leave.”  
Once Jaune woke up and was in working order, only then would she go and continue her own rehabilitation. She didn’t even need physical rehab. She wasn’t touched by her captors. Every wound rested on Jaune’s body.  
She winced at the thought. She could hear screams of pain, the spilling of blood, every single wound that she could see on Jaune’s body and so much more. These were the only times that she looked away from Jaune, when her memories forced her to shut her eyes and relive those three unbearable weeks all in a single second.   
She could see them. She could see those blue eyes widen before shutting as tight as her eyes were now. Before every cut, every swing, every punch, Jaune’s eyes would shoot open wide.   
\-----  
At first it was only a few minutes. She could still see Jaune standing up in front of her, telling the black suited folks that he was going to take Weiss’ punishment. It was only because of the circumstances that she felt any sort of worry for him at that point. This wasn’t Cardin, these were professional hitmen. They weren’t going to stop at a few punches.  
She closed her eyes and looked away from that scene. She didn’t want to watch them wail on Jaune. However, it was only for ten minutes. They quickly grew bored due to him not putting up a fight.   
The second time was longer. Twenty minutes. They were still using their fists, but the punches weren’t any worse than they were last time. They probably could have kept going if the goons hadn’t gotten bored.  
And then it all changed.   
Jaune wasn’t without his marks after the first two beatings, but the next day, he was walking around the room and moving just fine. All of his bruises were cosmetic. Even Jaune was surprised to wake up perfectly fine.  
Their captors noticed it too, and were eager to get to wailing on him. A whole hour they went, three of them went on Jaune at a time, while three others held Weiss to force her to watch. They traded places every so often.   
Once it was over, they decided to give Jaune a few hours. Let him rest up and heal. He had to have done much more than that, because he was in a walking condition by the time he woke up.  
They continued to push the limits on Jaune’s innate ability to heal at impossible speeds. Breaking bones, slicing tendons, reducing him to a pile of battered skin and bones in a few hours.  
It must have been his semblance, accelerated healing. Everyone had some sort of power within them that could be unlocked. Most Huntsmen and Huntresses had theirs unlocked at an early age, but it was no secret that Jaune only had access to it after making it to Beacon academy.   
The sessions only escalated after Neo had shown up.  
With Roman Torchwick behind bars, his accomplice Neopolitan had been scarce. Weiss’ teammate Yang had told her about Neo and Roman and their adventures with assorted goons they payed off.   
Neo was mute. At least, she never spoke to anyone. Maybe it was to further play into her psychotic nature, or perhaps she really was unable to speak.   
When Neo entered the room, it was only her. She could hold up a fight on her own, and Weiss and Jaune were in no state to fight.   
She carried her umbrella rather daintily, smiling pleasantly as she took the center of the room. Jaune, as he always did, stood up to confront whoever decided to step in. 

“What do you want from us? When are you going to let us go?” Weiss could remember when Jaune had spoken up at Neo.   
Neo didn’t say a word. She never did. Her cute smile never changed, her head never moved from that slightly tilted position.  
The next sound was from Jaune, gasping for air. Weiss couldn’t comprehend the speed at which Neo had moved her hand. Her umbrella was sticking out of Jaune’s back, the bladed tip soaked in Jaune’s blood. From her position on the ground, she couldn’t see where Neo had stabbed, but it was high up on his chest. She could take a mortified guess as to what she had hit.  
Neo moved a foot up and pressed it against Jaune’s stomach, only to kick him off of her Umbrella. Jaune fell to the ground with a rather harsh thud. Weiss wasn’t fast enough to catch him, but only to scramble on the floor after him.   
Weiss didn’t know what to do. She knew that he could take a beating now, but this was something else entirely. This wasn’t something that she could fix with some tightly wrapped cloth.   
Her eyes flickered around the room, looking for anything that could be of use. She stopped at the two small plates in the corner. Food. It had to do something.  
Jaune was still conscious. He was gasping, his eyes pointed up at the ceiling. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that something was worrying Weiss. He tried to smile at her, to calm her and to still her tears. He could feel his own hand shaking against his will, but he struggled to pick it up and reach out to Weiss.   
She was scrambling around, running around the room to get him food. Maybe that would work. She didn’t know. She had to try everything.  
When she finally did grab the plate, Jaune was unmoving. As she turned around, his eyes were closed, and his hand was limp on the ground.   
Weiss never slept for more than an hour after that.  
Whenever Jaune woke up next, he woke up gasping. Clearly, he remembered being stabbed, but the blood was dried and there was no hole in his body anymore.   
Weiss had been watching over him for hours, eating the little scraps of food given to her while she waited for him to wake. When he did, Weiss crawled over slowly to the blonde young man.   
Neither of them knew what was going on, but Jaune was mostly fine now. His body hurt a little, but he assumed that was par for the course.  
When Jaune finally sat up, Weiss was able to get a good look at that hole piercing his jacket. With her eyes wide, a trembling hand was set on the closed and healed scar on Jaune’s chest.  
She didn’t want to admit it, but she knew that it was the only option available to explain what had happened.   
Jaune had died, and he came back to life.  
\---  
Back in the real world, Weiss had moved her seat up right next to Jaune’s bed. He wore a gown that you’d typically see on a medical patient, but it didn’t hide any of the scars and marks that now adorned his body.   
“Weiss, your food’s getting cold.”  
Weiss didn’t look at the plate of food on the little rolling tray, nor the person who leaned against the door frame.   
“It’s not mine.” She replied. Her hand roamed Jaune’s torso absentmindedly. “I told you when I got back, just give me the notes and homework from class and I’ll do it.”  
There was a long and deep hum following Weiss’ words, but it wasn’t from her.   
“I suppose. You’ve yet to fail class, and your teammates have been delivering me and your other teachers your homework.” The voice was deep and powerful, but the words spoken were slow and careful. He took a breath to say more, but he knew that Weiss knew what he was going to say.   
Weiss shook her head. Indeed, did she know what the professor was going to say. “There’s nothing to talk about.” Her voice was just as careful. She didn’t want to sound mean, but she needed it to be said. “And there’s no one to talk to. Professor Ozpin is so disconnected that his wise words have no meaning. No offence to you, Professor Port, but this isn’t something that I can talk to you about.”  
Another hum. He was preparing something. If there was anything, Port knew what to say to not make things worse. He was planning every word, every thought that escaped his mouth.   
“If I can make a request, Miss Schnee. Talk to Professor Oobleck. I’m sure you know his stance on the Mountain Glenn. We were on a team once, you know. We shared many experiences out in the wilds.”  
He didn’t say anymore. He left the Schnee heiress with some words, more than he had spoken to her in the last few days.   
That was right, Professor Oobleck still hadn’t spoken with her. Ozpin, Glynda Goodwich, and many other faculty staff members had come in to check in on her over the past five days.   
With Professor Port gone, Weiss was left once again to her thoughts. Her hand was still moving about Jaune’s chest, her fingers tracing over each scar that she could feel through the thin fabric. Her eyes began to water. Her other arm moved up to wipe away the tears, but she still refused to move away from him.   
“Wake up soon, Jaune.”


	3. The Scarlet Spartan

Again.  
And Again.  
And Again.

Time after time, note after note, each trial after the other. Pyrrha Nikos had been working nonstop in the training room to perfect her fighting skills. 

She challenged everyone who so much as looked at her. She desired strong opponents to test herself against, but none of them were at the level that she needed to face. 

Even Cardin Winchester was no match for the scarlet spartan. Even with the assistance of his three teammates he was unable to claim a victory over Pyrrha.  
But even she could not stand forever.

She dropped to a knee in the empty training room. Her spear was used as a support, keeping her from falling onto the ground. The only sounds in the room were both coming from Pyrrha. Her breath was slow and heavy. She needed to focus on keeping it like that so that she wouldn’t resort to quick and shallow breaths. The other sound was that of her own heartbeat, thumping against her chest as she was forced to take a moment to recuperate. 

Her shield had fallen to the ground with a clang that echoed throughout the room. She was too tired to even keep her shield upon her arm.

She grunted. Moving both of her hands up the shaft of her spear, she pulled herself back to her feet.

“You need to rest.” Said a voice from the door behind her. “You’ve been at this ever since school let out. You’re exhausted.”

It was Lie Ren, her teammate. While Nora spoke more than enough for both herself and Ren, the young man was capable of voicing his own opinions. It was an interesting change to have Nora be the silent one in the room for once. 

Pyrrha shook her head. “I’m better than everyone here, but I’m still not good enough.” Her spin towards Ren resulted in a small, almost inaudible whine. She knew she was tired, that her body was begging for her to stop, but she couldn’t. Had she not been separated from Weiss and Jaune, they wouldn’t have been in this situation. 

“Pyrrha.” His tone didn’t shift, but there was more emphasis put on her name than before. “the second half of training is recovery. And you can’t jump back into intense training right after coming back from a dangerous mi-”

“Jaune almost didn’t come back!” She screamed at her teammate, whipping her arms at him and throwing her ground-bound shield with the use of her semblance. Her eyes were filled with tears, now falling freely as she fell back to her knees. “I made a vow, Ren. A vow that I broke. He almost died, and it was a stroke of _luck_ that he even survived.” Her voice was dangerously low. Her spear remained stuck in the ground, all but forgotten as she looked up at her green clad teammate. The shied had long since screeched to a halt, thumping solidly against the wall next to Ren. 

Neither Nora nor Ren had anything to say to Pyrrha. They were apart of that mission too. Nora’s hand was set on Ren’s shoulder. This wasn’t a moment that could be relieved with her happy-go-lucky nature. 

The two stepped forward, moving to each side of the fallen warrior. Nora pulled out Pyrrha’s spear with ease, and Ren had already positioned himself to help Pyrrha up. Lifting Pyrrha herself was an easy task for the two of them. Her weapon’s didn’t hinder them at all as they carried her out of the room. 

“You should talk to her.” Nora finally spoke up. Normally, she would try everything in her power to cheer up her friend, but even Nora knew when it was time for a different approach. “You haven’t even seen Weiss or Jaune since the recovery mission.” Through Ruby, Yang, and Blake, they had found out that Weiss had essentially locked herself in Jaune’s room. She refused to leave, and ate and slept the bare minimum. “They say he’s looking better.”

A soft murmur came from Pyrrha. But he was still unconscious. She couldn’t bear to see him after failing him, and everyone knew about his infatuation with Weiss Schnee. Everyone knew how she turned him down at every turn, but now she couldn’t be separated from even Jaune’s room in the medical bay. Something must have happened during their time in captivity. There was no way that Weiss wasn’t going to be the first one that Jaune saw when he opened his eyes. Pyrrha shut her teary eyes tight.

Her body hung limp while she was being carried by her teammates. 

On every level imaginable , she had failed him.

 

Nora was right. Jaune was looking better. No longer was his skin as pale as a bed sheet. The color had returned to his body, but his hair was still off and ragged, and his body was littered with scars. Pyrrha could only see the ones on his face, neck, and arms, but she knew that there were many more underneath the gown. 

Weiss didn’t look away from the paper on her makeshift desk when Pyrrha had entered the room. So it really was true, all of the rumors about Weiss not ever leaving Jaune’s room. She looked fine enough. The room was equipped with a shower for cleaning, and Pyrrha was sure that Weiss’ teammates delivered her clothing to change into. 

Neither said anything to each other. Weiss was focused on her work, and Pyrrha was focused on Jaune. Slowly she stepped towards him. Pyrrha’s hand stretched out, her fingers gliding across Jaune’s arm. From the corner of her eye she could see Weiss start a movement. Weiss shifted back, forcing herself to be seated even more comfortably than before. Only Pyrrha had Weiss’ permission to touch Jaune, let alone get near the boy. 

“You haven’t visited before.” Weiss commented, her eyes lot leaving her paper. “I remember seeing you when you rescued us, but I haven’t seen you since.” There wasn’t any anger or hate in Weiss’ voice. She was simply commenting on obvious facts about the world.

“I couldn’t bear to see either of you, Weiss. Both of you had gotten captured because of me, and I broke my promise to Jaune.” Pyrrha’s eyes were closed. Her hand moved next to Jaune’s and set her fingers over his. “I promised that I’d protect him, teach him how to become a huntsman. I let this happen.”

Weiss was silent. It was almost strange to hear those words from Pyrrha. Weiss had been telling herself and the unconscious Jaune that for weeks now. It was her fault. If she had been better, it wouldn’t have happened. Jaune would have been fine. 

Pyrrha twisted her body and looked at Weiss. She wanted someone to say something. Who it was or what was said didn’t matter. 

“He made a promise to me.” Weiss was quiet. Her voice was soft, yet tense. It hurt to remember anything about Jaune, especially all of his goofy antics in an attempt to win her heart. “And he kept it.”

If Pyrrha could don a flatter expression, she would have right then and there. A tone of annoyance would have to do for now. “You don’t need to rub it in, Weiss. His affections are with you.”

Now was the time that Weiss turned fully to look at the redhead. Her eyes were glossy, bags hung under her eyes from a severe lack of sleep. “That’s not how I meant it. He made a similar promise to me, before the mission.”

That was right. Pyrrha was even there when Jaune had made his public declaration of protection. 

_“Weiss!” Jaune had said on the landing pad as the two teams waited for their ride. “They’re saying that this is a really dangerous mission! I know you’re a top notch huntress in training, but you shouldn’t feel the need to do things on your own. Because you’ll have your team, my team, and me!”_

__

_Weiss had huffed as he tried talking himself up without seeming too narcissistic. “I don’t need anyone protecting me, I’m perfectly capable on my own, thank you very much.”_  
_“From this day on!” He shouted loudly, as if he didn’t just hear her try to shove him away. “I make a vow to always protect you in the face of danger! Nothing will stop me from ensuring your safety.” He pretended not to hear Weiss groaning at his proclamation, but he couldn’t deny that his shining smile faltered a little when she did. “I’ll see this promise through, I promise you!”_

“And he did.” The Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company nodded to herself as she retold the event to Pyrrha. “Every hit. Every cut. Every shot. He took so I wouldn’t have to. I didn’t even have a chance to tell them that I would take the hits for him.”

Once again the spartan was silent. She wanted to be angry at Weiss. She wanted to nothing more than to scream and use her semblance to shake and rattle every piece of metal in the room.

But she couldn’t. 

Jaune let himself be nearly killed to protect Weiss. There was no fault in his steps, no hesitation in his movement. Jaune took every blow because he knew that he was doing something for the one he loved. Pyrrha would have done the same for him a hundred times over.

Weiss had suffered enough. She had to watch the beatings, watch him being reduced to a pile on the floor day after day. Her being there with Jaune was to cope with what she had seen. She needed to see him open his eyes again before she could start recovering. 

Weiss opened her mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come out. Pyrrha’s head tilted ever so slightly. Weiss was working on something to say, but she didn’t seem to have the strength to actually say it. “Pyrrha.” She spoke the taller girl’s name. “Do you know about Jaune’s semblance?”

She shook her head. Even after unlocking his Aura, Jaune had shown no signs of any explicit abilities. He was an average warrior with a sword, a shield, and now a protective metaphysical barrier that was the culmination of his inner power. 

“Jaune… He can heal incredibly fast. I don’t know if it was a result of all of the beatings, but he’s also quite tolerant to pain. The goons were getting bored with Jaune after he wasn’t going down as easy as he was before. Then Neo stepped in…”

And she killed him.


	4. Quaint little space

But he was laying right there. His vitals were looking fine, and his pulse was definitely there.

 

How could Weiss even convince herself that Jaune had died?

 

Perhaps it was some sort of nightmare that she had during the imprisonment. Something that was so disturbing that it stuck with her memories of that time. And what was she talking about with Jaune’s semblance? Humans died, and they don’t come back, that’s how it works.

 

“Weiss…” Pyrrha wanted to reassure her of reality. It was all just some dream, Pyrrha told herself. Jaune didn’t die.

 

Weiss shook her head. She knew exactly what Pyrrha was thinking. Glynda Goodwitch had the same thoughts, and even their headmaster believed that it was just some delusion before Weiss actually explained everything to them. They couldn’t test Jaune’s semblance, not now. But they believed her for a time, only so they could have the chance to test it later on.

 

“Pyrrha. I was there…” It hurt to remember. Seeing that umbrella go right through Jaune like a hot knife through butter. She held him as he lost consciousness, cried as his pulse faded away. “Jaune was dead, Pyrrha. Clinically dead. He had no pulse, no breath, nothing. I slept that night, and relived the scene over and over. When I woke up, he was warm. His eyes opened, but we both knew what that meant for us and those that captured us.”

 

Pyrrha took a step back. She refused to believe this. Jaune didn’t die. He was simply unconscious, and Wiess was too frightened to make sense of reality. She couldn’t accept this, but it still left two options. She had to break the glass and force Weiss to accept the truth, or she could humor the heiress to help her cope. 

 

“I studied Auras, Pyrrha. Don’t think you can lecture me on what I saw and what’s possible.” She continued speaking to make sure that Pyrrha couldn’t start. Weiss was indeed reaching for straws, but she believed that she had found an answer for why exactly Jaune had returned from the dead. “Even when being beaten, he was resilient. Every time they started another session, they had to power through his Aura first. It should take a decent amount of time for his Aura to regenerate fully, but the time it took to actually do that was disturbingly short. Miss Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin said that they’d conduct tests on the nature of Jaune’s semblance once he wakes up.”

 

Weiss knew that she was right. She just needed for Pyrrha to suspend her disbelief for just a moment to see the truth of the matter. Neither could deny the truth about the infinite possibilities of Auras and Semblances. Weiss could generate glyphs with many purposes, and even summon creatures to aid her in battle. Phyrra could control metals. Maybe Jaune just couldn’t die.

 

“If,” Pyrrha looked at Jaune again, slowly moving back towards the boy. “Jaune could come back from the dead, how can you explain how it was done?” It was a valid question, one that Weiss had been trying to figure out for more than a week now. She had her thoughts, but there was no solid proof to back her theories. Not yet.

 

“I don’t know.” The heiress replied. His scroll can see how much of his aura he uses in combat, but measuring aura is something that we can’t exactly do without some sort of control subject.” Just like anything else, the amount of Aura that one person had could greatly differ from someone else. There was no way to measure how much someone had, but they could average it out through many different people and see if Jaune was higher or lower than the average.

 

The room grew quiet. Weiss had more that she wanted to say, but she was afraid of the answer that Pyrrha might have. It seemed that only Jaune was unaware of Pyrrha’s romantic interest towards him, which was normally rather funny to see him so oblivious, but now it came with a problem.

 

Likewise, Pyrrha had a similar thought lingering in her mind. Weiss wouldn’t have given Jaune the time of day, and now she wouldn’t leave his room. She didn’t want to think of what Weiss would say if Pyrrha actually did ask that question. With hesitation, she moved away from Jaune, her hand trailing over Jaune as she moved to the door. She stopped mere feet from the hallway, her head turning to speak to Weiss.

 

“Would you have taken his place if it meant saving him from this?”

 

Weiss nodded silently. She could tell that Pyrrha had seen her silent reply due to her head tilting downwards. She only left Weiss with one more question before leaving, wanting to leave Weiss with an important question to think about until they met again.

 

“Would you be saying that if you hadn’t watched him die for you?”

 

It struck a chord inside Weiss. She was rather angry at Pyrrha for the comment, but she couldn’t deny it’s truth. At the same time, her question made Weiss rather curious. The tone that Pyrrha had used was rather flat, but there was a hint of something else in there that Weiss certainly didn’t expect.

 

Was Pyrrha afraid?

 

Obviously she didn’t seem to like the idea of Weiss spending so much time in Jaune’s room, but that couldn’t be helped. Maybe she was more worried about Jaune having died, and what the extent of his semblance was if resurrection was the case. Without the fear of death, he would become careless, but he would never expect when one death might be his last.

 

Weiss had to focus. There was work to be done, and work was the only thing that kept her mind off of worrying about Jaune. Being next to him just calmed her, knowing that he was safe and within arms reach meant that she could be there for him if anything went wrong.

 

* * *

 

 

Weiss couldn’t deny that she had been slacking in certain areas. The tiny room that Jaune had been laying in meant that she couldn’t swing her sword about and perfect her form.

 

She would have to suffer.

 

Ruby and the rest of their teammates came in at least twice a day, both before and after school hours to check up on Weiss. Pyrrha only showed up on occasion, and her visits were for Jaune, not the one sharing his room.

 

It had been a while since Weiss had gotten use to seeing Jaune almost all the time. It really did help with her nerves to see him right there, even if he was still in a coma. She was still worried, though. He only had a week before things started to look grim, and after that they’d have to start considering the options. It wasn’t that they could kill him or pull any plugs, but any longer than they would actually force Weiss out of the room so she can move on without Jaune.

 

Pyrrha could do it, of course she could. She wasn’t the one stuck in that room with Jaune, watching him get tortured to the amusement of the kidnappers. Pyrrha was moving on with her life, preparing for the Vytal Festival with the other half of Jaune and Pyrrha’s team. While they were supposed to be competing, there was no way that they could if Jaune was unable to fight.

 

The same could be said about Weiss and her own team, team RWBY. If weiss wasn’t there to fight, that would be two teams that people of Vale don’t have to fight for them. Weiss wanted to participate, but she’d be leaving Jaune. It’s not like she could just yank all the wires out of him and drag him to training. He be there with her then, but there was no telling what could happen.

 

She pushed her seat back, just far enough for her to stand up without hitting the desk. Removing herself from her piles and piles of work, Weiss pushed her little chair back and and stared longingly at her sword Myrtenaster, propped up against the wall with care. She would just have to make due with the room that she had. It would be good practice anyways to fight in close quarters space, especially when she wasn’t allowed to touch anything in the room.

 

She nodded to herself in affirmation. She would make use of this situation. She would be able to hone her close quarters skills in Jaune’s hospital room. The tight space would make it excellent for her to train in, in the event that she is stuck in a small room again.

 

A set of slender fingers gripped the her handle of her sword, her grip tightening ever so slightly. She reminded herself to be careful. She made her way back to the center of the room, or as close to the center as she could get. Her hands clasped the grip on her sword, her head lowering just a little.

 

She pulled back, her right hand keeping its hold on her sword. She straightened her arm out behind her, preparing a stance as she always did before combat.

 

__Clang!_ _

__

The very first motion that Weiss made resulted in her hitting a stray stand. Her arms withdrew to her body, her face reddening of embarrassment. This would prove a challenge. Or maybe it was simply too cramped for her to be able to do anything.

 

 

She didn’t know how long she had stood there, near the center of the room. Maybe it was a bad idea. She needed to train, there was no way that she could stay here and work on her fighting. It was the one class that she couldn’t participate to due to her refusal to leave Jaune.

 

He still wasn’t improving. Of course his status wasn’t getting any better, but he was still in a coma. A whole month in deep sleep while his body tried to recover. But what was it recovering from?

 

It had to be a mental thing, Weiss told herself. Her month of study drew to the conclusion that something was wrong with his brain, something that kept him from waking up. Perhaps his body wasn’t even aware that it could heal from nearly anything. Maybe this was the drawback to being able to come back from death itself. There was no telling what the reason could be.

 

* * *

 

 

Lie Ren couldn’t believe that he was doing this. He, Nora, and the remainder of team RWBY were out and about, sneaking around away from Pyrrha and Weiss. It wasn’t exactly hard. Pyrrha was locking herself in the training room, taking on challengers like a madwoman. Weiss still hadn’t stepped out of Jaune’s room in over a month.

 

Nora was the one who had orchestrated this whole thing, pitching the idea to Ruby, Blake, Yang, and himself. There were two big problems that became more noticeable with each passing second. How were they going to separate Pyrrha from battling the entire student body, and how were they going to get Weiss to leave Jaune’s room?

 

“They’re falling into vices,” Blake commented, her words reflecting on a conversation that had been lost a few minutes before. “Its good to cope, but they can’t start to feel like they can stay like this.” She knew a thing or two about the topic. She had to remind Ren every time he felt the need to ask why they were doing all of this.

 

“Not to mention this spicy plot revolving around Loverboy. We gotta make sure that romantic tension stays as high as possible.” Yang decided to throw her own hat into the conversation. She clearly just wanted to sit back and eat some popcorn. Weiss was important, of course, but Wiess was a tough girl. She’d be fine in time. That good Jaune would make sure of it when he woke up.

 

Ren sighed. With Nora bouncing on her heels just next to him, there was little he could do or say that would turn the popular opinion over to himself. “I’m just saying,” He moved his hands as he spoke. “How are we going to do this? Nothing short of kidnapping Wiess is going to get her out.”


	5. Again

They were actually doing this. Ren couldn’t believe it. Well, when he said they, he meant team RWBY. He certainly wasn’t going to shove himself in that little room with at least five other people and attempt to stage a kidnapping, and he wasn’t going to let Nora go in there either.

He and Nora positioned themselves at the door. Ren looked at Blake first. She was always the calm one of her own team, but Ren could recognize that even she wasn’t completely prepared for this.

His glance shifted to the sisters, Ruby and Yang. Yang, as always, was sure of herself and confident in her abilities. She showed no signs of worry that the plan would fall through. Ruby wasn’t quite sure to say or think. She was more or less in the same position as Ren was, but she needed to be in there because she was the team leader.

“So, are you guys sure that you won’t make a mess in there?” Ren was more worried for Jaune in that room than anyone else. Nobody had told him what happened in the kidnapping mission. Maybe he’d find out one day if Pyrrha or Weiss ever felt so generous to do so.

“No, but we don’t have a choice.” Ruby took her stance as leader of the team rather well some times, despite being a few years younger than nearly everyone else on campus. “I just hope that we don’t end up hurting her too much to get her out.”

Ren could understand that. His eyes flickered over to Yang’s arms. Normally she would be wearing her shotgun gauntlets at all times, but it was agreed upon almost unanimously to go in without weapons to minimize damage. It wasn’t anything against Yang or her control, but her weapons were build for close quarters, and nobody wanted them going off.

It was about that time for them to step inside. When the three girls gave nods of affirmation, Ren stepped aside and opened the door for them. Once they were in, both he and Nora turned around so they could watch whatever might happen next.

It seemed like Wiess had been expecting them, or at least was aware of their presence. She didn’t jump after noticing her team standing in the room rather awkwardly near the door.

“Hello.” Weiss was examining a paper rather closely, only seeing them through the corner of your eye. “Do we have more homework to complete?”

Ruby shook her head at Weiss. She set held her hands together and rocked back and fourth on her heels, her eyes moving down and to the side. “No, we actually wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Weiss’ head picked up, obviously surprised. Most of their visits in the last couple days were just for homework assignments. Not a whole lot had progressed in the outside world, at least in matters that Weiss cared about.

Ruby nodded again, and was the first of the three to inch forward into the room. “We wanted to talk to you about… The Vytal Festival.” Ruby almost seemed ashamed to say it, or at least afraid of what Weiss might say in response to it.

The way Weiss sighed and set her shoulders told more than words could. From her fingers fell the piece of paper she was inspecting. She turned just enough to get a look at her sword, propped up against the wall as it had been for days now. “I’m doing what I can, Ruby. This room doesn’t exactly offer a whole lot of space to practice.”

Ruby stepped further in, and Blake and Yang stepped out to the sides. None of them took their eyes off Weiss, and from Ren’s position at the door, he could see Weiss watching them all and putting the pieces together in her mind.

Weiss’ eyes widen with realization and fear. She was quick to get out of her chair and back up, her mind racing as her focus shifted quickly between Jaune and all three of her teammates. Ruby, Blake, and Yang didn’t move, but Weiss continued to back up until she was in a corner.

“Leave.” Weiss warned. She tried to sound serious, but her tone revealed her fear more than anything. “I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

Ren connected with Weiss’ gaze for a split second. Weiss was even more outnumbered than she thought. But she still refused to go willingly. She crouched just the slightest bit, her eyes flickering around before landing on Myrtenaster.

With a hand outstretched, Weiss activated her semblance, a power manifested through the use of her Aura. Two glyphs appeared in the room. One was underneath the sword Weiss used, and the other was on the ceiling. Ruby and the others only watched as the Sword was lauched into the air by the first glyph. The glyph on the roof caught it, and shot the sword to Weiss, who caught it and entered a small and tight form.

It was a game of powers, then. Ruby, upon seeing Weiss use her semblance, decided that it would only make things even if Ruby used her own too. She had to be careful though, the room wasn’t big enough for her speed around all crazy like. She needed to enforce restraint.

Weiss looked back at Blake, still holding a defensive stance. Blake hardly moved at all. Weiss felt the air shift, and made a quarter turn, jutting her elbow out behind her.

The Blake that was standing near the door was gone, and in its place were some hanging clouds of smoke. The real Blake was instead behind Weiss, and caught the elbow intended for her face.

In this time, Ruby made her move, and used her own semblance to rush forward and make an attempt at Weiss’ sword, leaving rose petals behind her as she moved.

Weiss couldn’t hurt her teammates. She couldn’t bring herself to do any lasting damage to them, but they were coming after her with dangerous intent, and they had their Aura to protect them.

Weiss swung her arm around, hoping to force ruby to draw back, but in her fear she had miscalculated. Weiss had swung too fast and too far, giving Ruby ample time to come in and disarm Weiss.

Blake twisted the arm that she had while Ruby grabbed onto Myrtenaster and Weiss’ arm, forcing the sword out of her hand and rendering her immobile. Ruby flung the sword back for Yang to catch, so Ruby could put more effort into helping keep the heiress still.

It was like reliving a memory. Sheer numbers, fatigue, and an inhospitable environment were the reasons that Weiss and Jaune were captured a month ago, and the same conditions could be applied here.

Her struggle continued as Weiss remembered their capture. They had gotten Jaune first. He was the lesser fighter between them, even with Pyrrha’s lessons. It didn’t take much for five or six goons to outmatch Jaune, disarm him, and render him unconscious. Weiss had been keeping up the fight as well as she could, but the shock of watching Jaune go down was just what the thugs needed in order to capture her too.

“Stop!” Weiss screamed, both in memory and in real life.

There was a momen where Ruby almost wanted to let her go, to apologize to Weiss for forcing her to leave Jaune’s room. But she couldn’t let go. No matter how bad it felt, they needed to get Weiss out of that room. They needed for her to start picking herself back up, with or without Jaune. They had a commitment to the Vytal Festival, and only Jaune had an excuse not to attend.

“Yang.” Ruby was quiet. She still regretted her actions, but assure herself that Weiss wasn’t going to leave otherwise.

Yang had been standing back near Ren and Nora, watching the scene unfold. She didn’t like it either, but it had to be done. They couldn’t just carry a kicking and screaming Weiss through the halls. Something had to be done with her.

She stepped forward and joined her team, Myrtenaster still in hand. The silver Rapier was light, but a little heavier than Yang had expected due to the several containers of elemental Dust in the hilt of the sword. All of the basic elements Dust had to offer, for just about any situation.

Yang tossed the sword as high as she could without it hitting the ceiling. She caught it and swung the sword downwards quickly. With a resounding thud, the pommel of the blade connected with Weiss’ head, swiftly knocking her out.

It almost hurt to watch. Ren could only imagine what Weiss was going through. Even Nora couldn’t seem to put a smile on this, even if it was her plan to begin with. When Weiss fell lifeless, Ruby and Blake caught her, and none of them seemed truly happy.

He let out a sigh. The hard part was over. He stared at the room much longer than he should have. Weiss had turned the room from a hospital room to a conspiracy theorist’s lair. Her work, both for Beacon Academy and her personal research, was all over her desk hung on the walls, and scattered on the ground. It was a miracle they could move so much without slipping on the paper.

When he finally snapped out of his trance, team RWBY was waiting for Ren and Nora to move so they could leave the room. He jumped in surprise from their close proximity, and apologized to them curtly as he moved out of the way.

“Let’s go.” Ruby let Blake carry Weiss, since Ruby was smaller and could not carry Weiss as easily as nearly everyone else could. “Pyrrha’s probably still in the training hall.”

“I’ll catch up with you guys.” Ren excused himself. Ruby tilted her head, but said nothing. It wasn’t until Nora set a hand on Ren’s shoulder and gave a soft look to Ruby did the young girl actually leave with the rest of her team. Jaune was the talk of the School, and because Weiss refused to leave his side, she became a part of the conversations too.

Waiting until the girls left, Ren walked into Jaune’s room slowly and carefully. Nora followed close behind.

Ren was now able to get a good look at what Weiss had been doing for the last month, It was partly school work, but it was everything besides school work that interested him.

He stepped up to her desk and picked up the page she had been inspecting.

“Semblance notes…” He read from the top of the paper.

__Jaune seemed to posses the ability to regenerate at an inhuman rate, far beyond what a standard Aura is capable of. During my time captive, I watched Neo’s men break Jaune’s bones. For the first few days, I would always try to set them to the best of my abilities, but after I found that his arms, legs, and ribs were completely fine after a day’s worth of rest, there seemed to be no need for me to do so._ _

__It didn’t take long for Neo and her men to catch onto this. The torture sessions with Jaune went on for as long as they pleased, only leaving after getting bored. They would always come back the next day, to break Jaune’s body all over again._ _

__Neo stepped in. The very first thing she did was use her umbrella to stab him in the lung. Jaune went into shock, but was once again healed after rest. He could recall the feeling of being stabbed in the lung. Neo noticed what I did, that a fatal injury like a punctured lung through both sides mean nothing. She could cut his tendons, stab him, slash him, beat him with blunt objects. No idea was left untested._ _

Ren found this hard to believe, but Weiss was the one there, and Jaune did have an incredibly large Aura within him. He continued reading, wanting to know everything about their time in chains.

__Every day, Jaune would volunteer himself before I could even speak. It didn’t even matter at this point. Even if I did beat Jaune to speaking first, those criminals had already made up their minds. Jaune was the one that would always come back for more. My torture was sitting there, being forced to watch every drop of blood spill from his body._ _

__I lost track of time in that cell. Days and nights meant nothing. In the few moments that Jaune was awake and not being tortured, he would talk to me. He regaled me about the Dance, how he knew how to dance so well. Even as I heard him talk about it, he seemed as oblivious as he did back then. Pyrrha didn’t have a date, and Jaune went to the dance in a dress because of it. He doesn’t know how much he cares for her.He’d tell me of his sisters, of his life before Beacon. He even told me the truth about his presence at the school. His faked transcripts and everything. Only Pyrrha had been trusted with that information beforehand._ _

Something about the way Weiss’ letters tensed up when writing Pyrrha’s name seemed strange to him. It was evident here, and even further down the page as he skimmed about to see if it was consistent.

__He would try and woo me with plans to get escape, but those talks never lasted long. If he was talking too loud about it, one of the men would come in and silence Jaune, reminding him that neither of us would be leaving for a long time._ _

__But even after so many beatings, Jaune held onto hope like he did his sword. “I’ll get us out of here, I promise you.” He used to say that so many times, its almost hard to not hear his voice whenever I think of a promise._ _

__The only time that time started mattering to me again was thirty hours before the rescue. Neo… She came into the cell like she always did. She did her routine of rendering Jaune immobile, but still conscious. There was something off, though. She seemed careful, this time around. Less curious than before, almost like she was a surgeon working on a patient. I didn’t understand what she was doing at the time, but it makes sense now. She was making sure that Jaune could still feel. He got better at hiding his pain with each passing day, and she wanted to make sure that pain still existed._ _

__But even she could grow bored of her toys. She went through the motions. Her interest was fading. So she decided to try something new._ _

__She stabbed Jaune in the heart. I’ll never forget the sounds. Neo’s muffled laughter, Jaune’s screaming as her umbrella pierced his skin and his heart, the sound of his blood spilling onto the floor._ _

__But she wasn’t satisfied._ _

__She withdrew her umbrella from his chest and left the room. About a minute later she came back with his sword. Jaune was laying on the ground, writing around, and a guard was holding me down. I was too weak to do anything but watch Neo kneel down, sword in hand, and drag the blade across Jaune’s throat. Even more blood spilled from his body, and Neo outright laughed at our suffering. She and the guard left, and I could only sit there and hold Jaune as he bled out. He couldn’t even speak, much less focus at anything. But I was there the whole time. Jaune had continuously bled through his chest and his throat for a full hour before it stopped. I forced myself to stay up. As soon as jaune stopped moving, his pulse returned. I was close enough to feel it fade out for a moment, but it returned at a normal pace._ _

__I counted the hours that I sat there, holding Jaune in my arms. His pulse was ongoing, but he showed no signs of waking up any time soon._ _

__As soon as Qrow and the others arrived, I lost consciousness. I was too tired to do anything. When I woke, I reported what happened to Professor Ozpin and the doctors. None of the, believed me, but I know what I saw._ _

__Jaune Arc is incapable of dying._ _

“Ren.” Nora’s voice pulled him back to reality, her brow knitted in worry as her hand once again found its place on his shoulder. “Weiss has been…”

Ren lowered his head. “Weiss was the first to see Jaune’s semblance. And the first to see it pushed to its limits.”

“Ren.” She repeated his name as she dragged his shoulder back. She continued to pull him until they were looking at a group of papers on the wall. Once again, Ren went to inspect it.

Her studies and observations didn’t stop at Jaune’s semblance. She was also studying her own, her glyphs. She was trying to see all of their possible uses and applications. The notes drifted away from semblances, however, and moved to cold, hard medical science.

Her notes and details went deep. Every possible theory on the cause of Jaune’s coma, and every possible solution to every problem. Ren reached out to one of the papers, his hand gliding across the dried ink. She was teaching herself to be a doctor.

“Jaune died for her, Ren. Now she’s spending every waking moment trying to bring him back.” 


	6. Round One

_Clang!_

 

Neither had initially agreed to this.

 

__Bang!_ _

 

Neither had the choice, but once an explanation was given, Pyrrha seemed much more open to the idea. Weiss, as much as she hated to agree to it all, conceded, and the match was on.

 

Pyrrha had struck again. Long gone was her refined and calculated style of fighting. All of her grace on the field had been withered away by the days spent in the training hall. She fought like a rabid Beowolf, hacking and slashing away with her spear with unrelenting fury. Her wild attacks forced Weiss into almost a purely defensive position- Pyrrha left little room for Weiss to sneak an attack in.

 

The remnants of teams RWBY and JNPR were both standing on the sidelines, watching the fight unfold between the two huntresses. They were the ones who had set this up after all. Other onlookers would be worried about how savage Pyrrha had become, Ruby, Ren and the others lacked that kind of feeling. Each scream, each clash of metal, all of it was perfectly fine.

 

The terms of the fight were simple. When Weiss had awoken in the training hall, the rules were explained to her and Pyrrha rather clearly. Weiss could return to Jaune’s room, and team RWBY would no longer try to pull her away from the unconscious lad, as soon as she could best Pyrrha in combat.

 

Weiss whimpered, taking another solid hit from the scarlet spartan. The fight was an impossible one. Pyrrha had been spending every hour of her free time training and fighting.

 

Once she saw the perfect opening, Weiss summoned several glyphs. A black glyph appeared underneath Pyrrha, holding her in place. A line of white glyphs carried Weiss out from the edge of the arena back to the center. Her breath was shallow, forced. This wasn’t the first time today that Weiss had used her semblance to bail out of a close quarters situation with Pyrrha, and it surely wouldn’t be the last.

 

Not only had Weiss been neglecting her training, but her skill with glyphs was seriously lacking compared to that of her sister. Even on her own, Weiss knew that she wasn’t as skilled as she should be at this point in time, and all she had to blame was herself.

 

Weiss looked up to the large monitors on the wall of the training hall, showing the aura levels of the combatants. Over the course of the fight, Weiss’ aura had been diminishing at a quick and steady pace, but Pyrrha’s aura had barely been expended at all.

 

With the glyph under Pyrrha fading away, she quickly made the effort to stress the glyph quicker, dashing out and at Weiss as soon as her body would allow.

 

This was the only time that Pyrrha allowed herself to vent. She told herself that she didn't hold anything against Weiss for what had happened, but the truth came out in her strikes. Every yell, every cry.

 

Pyrrha threw her shield forward at Weiss. The metal plate was being directed by Pyrrha’s own semblance. Pyrrha’s control of magnetism was legend, and her skill with it was truly something to see.

 

Weiss blocked the incoming shield at the expense of being knocked down to the floor.The shield, still in motion, bounced once on the ground before being launched back to land on Pyrrha’s arm.

 

Pyrrha inched forward with death in her eyes, striking fear into the already unprepared Weiss.

 

“I surrender!” Weiss raised her rapier in the air in an act of submission. Pyrrha didn’t stop. She continued moving closer, stalking closer inch by inch. “Pyrrha, I said I surrender!”

 

Whether Pyrrha was able to hear her over the battle going on in her mind or not was unclear, but she only stopped when she was right in front of Weiss.

 

Pyrrha drew her arm back once more, delivering a strike with her spear. Wiess blocked it, rolling out to the side and onto her feet. Pyrrha wouldn’t allow the fight to end here.

 

She growled at Weiss, continuing her stabs and slashes with unrelenting force. Weiss begged and pleaded for the battle to be over, but Pyrrha wasn’t done yet. Neo didn’t stop torturing Jaune when Weiss begged then, why should Pyrrha stop now if she heiress couldn’t prove herself?

 

“I wasn’t there, Weiss.” Pyrrha’s voice was as cold as her eyes were. Every stab, every slash, every savage movement was designed to force Weiss to either throw herself at the spear or throw her sword and finally put her foot in the proverbial door. “I couldn’t have prevented this, neither could you then, nor could you now.” She spoke during the brief pauses of her onslaught. “I’ve spent every day here, training, getting better, making sure that this never happens again. You? You’ve secluded yourself in Jaune’s room, doing nothing!” Her rage began to seep through, taking over in place of her cold demeanor.

 

Pyrrha would never say this under any normal circumstances, but the fog of war and her rage blinded her mind and her eyes, keeping her from acting clearly.

 

Unfortunately, Pyrrha eventually grew tired of pushing Weiss further and further back around the length of the arena.

 

She tossed her spear to the side, using only her shield for the opposite of its intended purpose. With a swift backhand, Pyrrha was able to force Weiss to let go of her rapier. The sterling silver tool of elegance screeched and skidded across the floor before becoming still.

 

Weiss stumbled back from the force of the shield bashing against her arms. Her aura had been completely depleted. She fell back on her rear and looked up at the warrior before her.

 

Tears welled in Weiss’ eyes, shut tight as she relied on her arms to keep her propped up. “At least I see him!” She screamed back. She was sure that another hit was going to be delivered unto her, but it never happened. Slowly, her eyes opened to look up at Pyrrha.

 

For just a split second, Weiss was able to see some emotion spark inside Pyrrha. “In all this time, I can count the times you’ve visited on a single hand! I can’t train because I’m trying to revive him!”

 

Pyrrha’s eyes looked right through Weiss, hollow and dry, but Weiss could tell now that the taller girl’s eyes were red and glossy.

 

The two stood, looking through one another in the distance behind them. They stayed there for what seemed like an eternity, no words uttered between the two for several minutes.

 

Suddenly, Pyrrha spun around to the door to the training hall, looking at her’s and Weiss’ teammates. “Bring on the next challenger.”

 

Her voice lacked the raw emotion that she poured out through the fight. This was the new Pyrrha. She would never be content with herself knowing that she was unable to keep Jaune from this fate. Perhaps this was his fate, but Jaune had a way of denying such cosmic forces. His life was completely in his hands, his choices all his own, and no one interested her more than him.

 

Pyrrha turned to walk away. As she spun, Weiss caught her arm and forced her to spin back. Pyrrha glared daggers, but said nothing.

 

"Wait!" Weiss was breathless. "You're the strongest person here, Pyrrha. There's nothing you can gain from fighting every student twice."

 

The taller woman was still silent. If there was nothing else for her here, like Weiss stupidly suggested, then where would she go? There was nothing wrong with keeping your skills as sharp as possibly.

 

"I... I can see it too..." Weiss breathed out. "You're better than me, there no question, but you're exhausted." Her hand loosened its grip of Pyrrha's arm. Both parties allowed the arm to fall back to Pyrrha's side.

 

"I remember watching the recordings of your fights before I came to Beacon. I know how you fight, and you're absolutely drained. Blake went through something similar." She looked down, around, to both her teammates and Ren and Nora. "I'll stay. I'm not at your level, but I can be. Go watch over Jaune. You've hardly seen him... and I know... you..."

 

Even if it was only for a fraction of a second, something shone in Pyrrha's eye. Had Weiss not been as exhausted as Pyrrha was, she almost would have smiled.

 

“You’re going to meet Neo again.” Pyrrha said quietly. “Since you escaped, I’m sure you’re going to be on the top of her list. I expect for you to bring her in to answer for her crimes.” Pyrrha turned around unimpeded. Her steps were gentle yet firm, like a stone king addressing the children under their rule. “It should be no problem for you, if, of course, you beat my in combat by then.”

 

Fiery eyes nodded to Pyrrha. Neither had any more words to share with one another, and Pyrrha left with Ren and Nora in tow.

 

Though it wasn’t the outcome the expected, both teams were rather happy with how things were resolved for the time being. Maybe some change for the better would finally be made with the two of them switching places.

 

Weiss accepted the terms of their fight. She wasn’t going to leave or return to Jaune until she could know for a fact that she could defeat Neo. It was her challenge to herself and her promise to Pyrrha. Weiss had done her part for Jaune, she began to understand. Her research was far from perfect. It still needed time, but time was what they all needed.

 

She looked back to the three other girls that consisted to team RWBY, a smile forming at the edge of her lips. She didn't even need to say anything. Yang stepped up first with her trademark grin, bashing her fists together. Ruby was the second to move forward, followed lastly by Blake.

 

It was time to train.


	7. To the Future

There he lay.

There she stood.

She had been fine during the entire walk here, all the way still running off of the fuel from the fight between Weiss and herself. Her resolve was unbreakable, but something about getting Weiss to step up to train to beat her strengthened her as well.

But now she was stuck, unable to open up the door that separated her from her team. No, it wasn’t her team. It was Jaune’s team, the team she was a part of. Apart from.

Ren and Nora were already in there. Pyrrha watched them go in. When they entered and that door cracked open, Pyrrha was able to get a clear view of Jaune’s motionless body trapped in alabaster bed sheets. Her gaze set on him and her breath hitched. Time stopped.

All of her training and work were to make herself better than she was before, but seeing Jaune for that brief moment took her back to that night in the forest. Her own screams were a distant sound in her mind, calling out for Jaune and praying for the moon to bring him to her.

In the end, it was Yang and Blake that had returned with a tip as to where Jaune and Weiss had been held in. Pyrrha had become what Weiss was up until about fifteen minutes ago.

She remembered that day vividly. Pyrrha had been in her dorm room after another day of schooling. Training was over for the day, and Pyrrha was left alone with her thoughts. Three weeks and still nothing. Blake and Yang had been gone all day, and Ruby told her that she wasn’t allowed to say where the two had gone. It wasn’t the first time the duo had left school suddenly over the course of the month. Pyrrha didn’t keep track of where everyone was, but she definitely knew that something was up.

It wasn’t until later in the evening that Yang and Blake finally reappeared at school. Ruby, Blake, Yang, and even Ren and Nora all burst into the JNPR dorm room in their combat outfits. In tow was a sixth person, Ruby and Yang’s uncle Qrow.

It was explained to her that they had found out places where Jaune and Weiss might be, and with Qrow’s help, they were able to narrow their search greatly. Once they were finally on the right track, Yang, Blake, and Qrow came back to the school to gather the teams.

Pyrrha wished she could say that she had spearheaded the mission. She wished that she could say her feelings for Jaune were what fueled her to be the first in the fight, bashing skulls in and causing the walls to cave in. The truth was much less glamorous.

Pyrrha, of course, was quick to suit up and get moving, but she was the last in just about everything. Seeing the goons that had ambushed them weeks before forced her to relive many of those memories, compelling her to stop for precious seconds at a time. Time and time again she was bailed out by her friends, but they all understood.

She wasn’t even the first to see Jaune. Ruby had opened the door, and Qrow rushed in to take vitals. Pyrrha only got a peak of Jaune, nested in Weiss’ arms, and the image of the Snow White Heiress being covered in the blood of the one in her arms was a sight she’d never forget. Ren, Nora, and Yang left to alert the pilot. Pyrrha was left without a task as everyone else worked together to bring Weiss and Jaune back to the Bullhead without causing more damage to them.

From that day on, Pyrrha promised herself to be better. There was no more time in the dorm wondering about where Jaune and Weiss could be. If she wasn’t in school or doing homework, she was training, making herself better than anyone else. After she saw Jaune, she promised that he’d never have to face something like that again.

 

And now, she she stood outside of the room that protected Jaune, unmoving, frozen.

She let out a soft sigh. She wasn’t getting anywhere. She tried again. A hand was lifted slowly, reaching out for the door.

She was okay, she said to herself. She’s okay.

The door was cold to the touch, made of some kind of metal that was about as buffed and polished as physically possible. She pushed the door open, and the image of her reflection was replaced with Ren and Nora sitting at the side of Jaune’s bed.

Her eyes widened, her body froze once more. Just the faintest squeak was let loose from her lips. She could do it. Her friends were in there, waiting for her. Ren gave her a glance, impassive, almost uncaring.

This was her trial; the door was her fire.

One foot was lifted, set down further forward. Again, with the other foot. She continued, slowly and carefully, her eyes focused on Jaune. The beeping of the machine beside him faded away, her senses tunneling in on her Knight.

One step after another, she finally reached the bedside.

He looked just like he did when Pyrrha had visited him the first time. Nothing had changed, not that she expected anything to. It didn’t cease to make things hard.

His face, neck, chest, and arms all bore the scars of his time being captured. Thin lines and small patches on his skin were different from the rest. Lighter, slightly bubbled, some even still holding that red color from the scarring process. Looking at him, Pyrrha knew that Jaune would never look the same. She couldn’t bear to think about how he’d react when he woke up.

She stared at his face. She took in every scar, and was unable to look away from the largest and angriest of them all. If there were a mark to stand out above the others, it would have had to have been the one on the left side of his face. It was nearly perfectly vertical, and stretched from the side of his jaw all the way up through his temple, and curved inwards to the center of his forehead. There was another scar, long and slim across his throat, but it seemed to have been healing better then the one one his face.

This was the first time that she had really taken in Jaune’s new appearance. After she and the others returned from the rescue mission, the only time Pyrrha had seen Jaune or Weiss was once. During that meeting, She was so afraid to look at Jaune. She had watched his hand as she intertwined her fingers with his, then had kept her eyes  on Weiss the entire time she was there.

Both Ren and Nora could see Pyrrha’s mental adventure. Her facial expressions from pain, to anger, to sorrow, told them the story they wanted to hear.

Nora gave Ren a look, silently pleading with him. Surely Pyrrha knew about Jaune’s semblance. It was becoming a well kept secret among the two teams. Even if she knew about Jaune, Nora wondered if Pyrrha knew about what Weiss had been up to? This was her second time visiting, coincidentally the second time the whole team has been together.

“Pyrrha.” Nora was nervous, something she didn’t outwardly express a whole lot. “We know that change is good for you. You’re here, seeing Jaune…!” She offered a meek smile.

Still, Pyrrha didn’t look away from Jaune. “But, Wiess. Ever since she came back, she’s been studying everything from Aura and Semblance theory to actual anatomy. I don’t know if… If she was trying to learn more to talk herself down, or if she was trying to bring him back.”

Nora let silence take over the room. It was hard to tell if Pyrrha was listening or not. Her gaze was distant, and her breathing was quick, yet even.

Minutes passed, and Pyrrha was still silent. Nora was afraid to speak up again, and Ren was entertaining the thoughts of what could have been.

“What are you trying to tell me?” It seemed like Pyrrha had been listening to Nora. Her voice was soft and distant, yet it carried that same low, dull tone that it had taken ever since Jaune and Wiess had gone missing.

Nora couldn’t answer.

“Thank you, Nora. But there’s nothing Weiss can do. Fate has dealt is hand. We can only stand by and watch it as it is revealed to us.” This was one of the times where Nora and Ren missed Pyrrha preaching. Pyrrha firmly believed in destiny, and it was a welcome change to have her talking a little bit like her old self again. “Jaun will wake up _when_ he wakes up.”

* * *

 

The fully formed team RWBY was quick to get to sparring. Twice in a single day they had proven that Weiss was unable to fight due to her extended hiatus from training, and now Weiss had to prove to them that she could spring back and keep in line with the others.

Currently it was light sparring between Ruby Rose and Weiss. Weiss had already shown how she fared in close quarters combat, so fighting against Ruby was simply to start her out at medium range, and then start spreading out from there.

Ruby, despite her small size and stature, was wielding her sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose, as effectively as ever, swinging around the ruby red and black heap of gears and switches as if it were lighter than air. Long, sweeping motions were her key for staying in motion while moving her giant scythe around.

Weiss’ own form was quite the opposite. Quick and precise movements, practiced and choreographed for years. It seemed like she was the only one who followed this particular style. She almost felt bad that she wasn’t as fluid as the others were, despite her precision and dead accuracy with her cuts and thrusts.

Weiss moved for the offensive. Her rapier was loaded with elemental dust, but a light duel like the one she was in wouldn’t need that serious of a tool. However, that didn’t stop Ruby from loading soft rounds into the magazine of Crescent Rose. As integral to combat as dust was, Weiss didn’t need it as much as Ruby needed ammo, so the right remained fair.

 She had to keep her distance. Ruby had a rather impressive reach with her scythe, and she had already been swiped at a few times since the match began.  She could stand to take a few more hits, but she was still rather tired from her fight with Pyrrha. Right now, she was only running off of the energy from her small talk with Pyrrha after they were done.

Swipe after swipe, Ruby closed in on Weiss without even needing to use her semblance. Her red and black figure bounded closer, and with each movement came a small grunt.

She bounced high and switched gear with speed even surprising for her. Her weapon twisted and shifted back into its sniper rifle form, and from her position well above Weiss, took a single shot that was more than enough to put Weiss down on one knee.

Ruby was honestly a little 

surprised how her first fired round put Weiss down, despite Weiss suffering from some small cuts from Ruby’s scythe. Maybe she really was that wiped from the previous fight.

Ruby fell down to the ground as any tiny, fifteen-year-old girl who carried a weapon just as large and heavy as she was could, and almost rushed over to keep the fight going. She was stopped by a single hand raised by Weiss.

They heiress sat on her legs, kneeled over with one hand up in the air, and the other loosely holding her rapier. Her breathing was once again shallow and quick.

“M… Match…” Weiss huffed and her hand dropped to the ground like a pile of bricks.

Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose down and swung it to attach to the small of her back. From there, she completely removed herself from her combat stance and walked over to Weiss with a cute smile on her face. She extended a pale hand out to Weiss, who slowly took it and used it to pull herself up.

She shook her head and kept her eyes on Ruby’s shoes. “I have a long way to go.” She said to herself. Yang and Blake could be heard moving down to the arena floor, but she still kept her focus on the ground. “If I can’t even beat someone who’s form I know inside and out, how am I expected to beat Pyrrha? Other Students? My captors?” Anger quickly took over. She stood by her research firmly, but she knew that it was going to be a bit of a rushed job getting herself ready for the Vytal Festival. Team JNPR’s place in the festival was still up in the air. They might send another team in to fill their spot if Jaune didn’t wake up or wasn’t ready at that point.

Blake, ever the silent, stalker, walked up to Weiss and forced her to look into her tense golden eyes with a finger pulling her chin up. “You’ll be ready. We know you can’t beat Ruby right now, so at least you have a starting point. We’ll use actual arena fights as milestone markers to track your progress as you work your way back up.” Blake retracted her hand and took a step to the side, letting Ruby take a tiny half step closer to Weiss.

“You were hesitating a lot, Weiss.” Ruby didn’t want to be too harsh on Weiss while they worked on training her, but Ruby, Yang, and Blake had all talked about this. They needed to be critical. “I wasn’t using my speed, but it was like you were trying to keep yourself from using your semblance. With how slow I was going and how many chances I gave you, you were afraid to risk stepping out of your stance.”

Weiss nodded with a bit of a frown. It was more directed at herself than anything. They were right, and she let this happen to herself.

Yang was the last one to join the group. Her arms swung around the necks of both Ruby and Weiss as she closed in, resulting in a small giggle from the younger sister. “That’s enough practice for today. Let’s go into town and celebrate being a whole team again!”

 

* * *

 

So that’s how she wanted to play it. Pyrrha would accept this provocation of war and retaliate like Beacon has never seen before!

Since their little bout, both Pyrrha and Weiss have been evening out their schedules, balancing one another by checking in on Jaune and keeping themselves in top physical performance for the upcoming fighting tournament, the Vytal Festival. Schoolwork was something that the two excelled in, so there wasn’t much need for a mediator there.

In the last three days, Weiss had been moving all of her research notes out of Jaune’s room and into her dorm. Phyrra had seen the notes fade away over time. She had even looked over a few pages during her time watching over Jaune as he slumbered.

Most pages were notes about Aura theory and actual medical practices regarding patients in a coma, but there were a few that looked more like personal notes about Weiss’s feelings and thoughts.  Those were mainly about her experiences in being jailed by Neo and watching Jaune suffer, but others were a little more current. Her growing and changing thoughts on Jaune, her thoughts on her teammates, and those focused on Pyrrha.

Pyrrha has always had eyes for Jaune. Even an idiot could see that, but Jaune somehow never came to the conclusion that she harbored romantic feelings for her. Weiss knew this very much, and it was made rather clear in her more personal writings.

_Pyrrha could be dating any of the strongest hustmen or huntresses in the academy, and she sets her sights on Jaune? I don’t understand._

_What is it with Jaune that has Pyrrha so interested? It must be some sort of pity or innocence that he has that draws her to him. It can’t be wit, charm, or even combat prowess._

_I will admit, when pushed to the extreme, Jaune can hold his own. Semblance or no, you really do need to cut his tendons to keep him down. Otherwise, he will find a way to get back up. Maybe Pyrrha saw this potential in him when they met._

_I don’t know what I would have done in that cell had Jaune not been there. Stripped of our weapons, we were completely helpless. If only I could use my semblance to its fullest extent! Conversation with him really did keep me sane. His stories of home are nice and quaint. Nothing like my own experiences of family. In a way, I’m kind of jealous of his simple life._

Pyrrha knew battle strategy. Weiss took all of her research papers and left all of the personal notes regarding the three of them to challenge and taunt her. She had already visited Jaune earlier today, and she didn’t carry a single sheet of paper with her on her way out. Pyrrha took this as a personal attack on her and her possible relationship with Jaune. If that’s how Weiss wanted to do things, then Pyrrha would play this game too.

She just needed some way to get back at Weiss.

She already displayed her physical superiority in one-on-one combat earlier that week. Perhaps something having to do with academics? The middle ground between them both? Yes! It was perfect.

Pyrrha set her eyes on Jaune. She was glad that Weiss was beginning to respect Jaune, but she was getting a little too close for her liking. Slander was cheap and dishonorable, not to mention impossible because Jaune was still out cold. She had to clearly prove to Weiss that she was the better woman.

 

* * *

 

 

The next move was during Professor Goodwitch's class. Not only did she teach combat, but she also taught battle study and theory, a place where Pyrrha was rather gifted in.

"Now, everyone here should be familiar with the Red War. When the first forming huntsmen and hunstresses of Vale were pitted against an amassed army of..?"

 

Pyrrha took only a small glance at Weiss before her fist slammed down on the desk and her other hand shot into the air. "Bandits!" She answered loudly. "When the kingdom of Vale was first forming, the bandit leader known as Don Rouge assembled many bandit camps to attack the kingdom. The war lasted eighteen months before the bandits were exhausted and Don Rouge was killed."

 

The entire time her answer was delivered, Pyrrha kept looking back at Wiess to watch her shake and grumble.

 

All throughout class this continued. Pyrrha kept shouting out the answers with enthusiasm as if she were on a gameshow. However, this only occurred when she noticed that Weiss was going to try and answer.

 

Of course Weiss picked up on Pyrrha's answering habits. This could only be an act of retaliation against her leaving all of those personal letters to herself in Jaune's room from Pyrrha to see. Two could play at this game. 

 

Her features hardened and she payed close attention to the lecture. Every once and a while, Miss Goodwitch would pause to ask a question regarding what she was talking about. 

 

The professor went on. As soon as her tone shifted to that of a questioning one, both Weiss and Pyrrha shared an intense look. 

 

"Can any of you tell me the names of the squad in charge of bringing down Don Rouge?" She spoke, but was barely able to finish the last word before two hands shot up quickly into the air. 

 

A brow raised. Two sets of eyes practically leered into Miss Goodwitch's skull, begging to be picked over the other. 

 

The moment seemed infinite. She had asked the question, now she was taking her dear sweet time picking who to answer it. 

 

"Ruby." Miss Goodwitch selected a student with a long finger extended out to the youngest student in Beacon.

 

Both girls deflated. Maybe Goodwitch knew they were now competing for answers and wasn't going to have any of it. Maybe it was a stroke of bad luck for them both. 

 

As Ruby delivered her answer, Weiss and Pyrrha gave each other another steely look. 

 

This was war.


	8. Back and Fourth

It started in the classroom.

Pyrrha and Weiss were constantly battling one another, showcasing their acedemic superiority over the other. It was keeping the other from answering Professor Goodwitch's questions, causing small distractions to set the other off during Professor Port's demonstrations, being the best student, one could be to make themselves look better not only to the other, but the student body as a whole.

Then Sembances became involved.

Pyrrha was sitting in combat class watching Sky Lark and Ruby Rose face off. Glynda, knowing the rough time that that Pyrrha was going through, was rather glad to see the scarlet spartan taking a step back to relax a little.

As was to be expected, Ruby's unique style of fighting was more than enough to overpower Sky. They were at the point in the curriculum where people weren't pulling punches in sparring matches, so Ruby was allowed to use her semblance of super speed to end the match quickly.

"Good job, Miss Rose. You may both return to your seats." Professor Goodwitch congratulated the young teen and watched them both leave the arena.

"Would anyone else like to fight today?" Professor Goodwitch looked around and saw two raised hands. The first of which came from the foreign student Sun Wukong from the desert kingdom of Vacuo. The second hand, raising slowly after Sun had moved down to the arena, belonged to Weiss.

Weiss could never remember having taken Sun on in a fight. He had been with Blake on one occasion that she could remember, but her memory of Blaking having run away was now a bit blurry.

With the two fighters down on the arena, they stood at the marked spots an equal distance away from the center and each other. Images of their faces appeared on the large screen behind them, as did two gauges depicting their Aura levels.

"Begin." The professor announced.

Sun bounded close as soon as the match was started. His staff was broken in half, creating his shotgun-nunchucks.

While Weiss did prefer her opponents at a medium range, she was perfectly fine with Sun being up close and personal. Her only worry was that his fast action nunchucks would be too much for her to deal with all at once.

He started swinging and shooting in time with himself. The shotgun blasts were to amp up the speed of his swings, launching the nunchucks at Weiss' rapier with incredible speed.

Weiss struggled to keep up with the swings and spins of the nunchucks, but her defensive stance allowed her to quickly react to all of the hits Sun tried to deliver.

This was another case of one fighter being loose and freeform while the other was strict and refined, and watching Sun on the offencive allowed everyone to see two drastically different styles of movement in action.

Weiss hardly changed her footing, most of her movements coming from her arms holding her rapier in different positions and angles to block hits.

That's when it happened.

Sun pulled in the trigger of one of his nunchucks and brought it down against Weiss' blade. Her sword was tilted forward, allowing the nunchuck to slide all the way down to the hilt. As soon as it did Weiss didn't allow Sun to pull it back as she pulled on the trigger of her own sword.

The hammer on her hilt pulled back and swung forward, causing a small explosion of ice Dust to hit Sun's nunchuck. The explosion was enough to launch the nunchuck back at Sun, hitting him square in the chest with the force to rival one of his own shotgun blasts.

Sun grunted and stumbled back. His frozen cold Nunchuck hit rather hard, even through his Aura. He knew that his time on the offensive was over, as Weiss had darted at him with the use of one of her speed glyphs.

Weiss stabbed and thrusted at Sun, hoping to get a few good hits in with her comparably lighter weapon.

Sun whipped his nunchucks around and spun them in a defensive pattern to give himself time to transform the weapons back into a staff. However, a problem arose when he realized that one of his nunchuck ends was still frozen, and the mechanism would not engage.

He'd have to make due.

He transformed his weapon as much as he could, creating a staff with a flail at the end of it. In his years of fighting, this had never occurred, and Weiss could tell by his inability to make use of this altered tool.

Weiss wasn't the only one to discover this. As Pyrrha stood in the stands, she watched Sun struggle with blocking and countering attacks. Pyrrha was glad to see that Weiss' training was paying off a little, but something inside of her didn't like seeing Weiss improving so much. With a rush that only instinct and intrusive thoughts could bring, she waved her hand softly and activated her semblance in the subtle ways that she always did.

The onslaught by Weiss was going well. She had Sun on the ropes, and with her having so much time to hit him, their Aura were soon to be equal again at around half capacity. They could only take a few more hits before one of them lost.

It was then that she went for another hit, but ended up striking right at Sun's flailing nunchuck end. Her stab was powerful enough to break off a good chunck of ice, and apparently enough to re-activate the internal mechanisms that allowed it to finish its transformation.

With his staff working at full capacity again, Sun grinned and used this moment to flip the tables once again. While Sun was at a disadvantage with a part of his weapon not working, Wiess seemed like a glass cannon. She could do a lot of damage, but her defense left a lot to be desired.

Sun brought his hands together and set his staff upright to activate his own semblance. Splitting off from him were two glowing gold replicas of Sun. The three all joined together to wail on Weiss, and her one weapon wasn't enough to face off against what were essentially three huntsmen.

What was once two huntsmen chipping away at the other's Aura, was now one of them drastically lowering the other's Aura because of a sudden power shift.

When Weiss' Aura was too low to continue, an alarm blared once, and Glynda stepped fourth onto the arena.

"That's enough, you two. Sun Wukong is the victor." She announced, much to the joy of Pyrrha. "Weiss, you're improving well. Good job. Sun, you did good as well, but if it hadn't been for the luck of Weiss hitting your staff, you might have lost a lot more Aura before the end of the fight. Please get used to your weapons and all possible configurations in the event something like that happens on the battlefield. I'm glad you could recover, even if by a stroke of luck. Back to your seats, both of you."

They both did as requested, and Professor Goodwitch had one more fight planned for the day. Pyrrha was selected as the first fighter, and her opponent was going to be Blake Belladonna.

As both fighters made their way down to the arena, Weiss thought that it would be funny to play a little prank on Pyrrha. With the power of her semblance, Weiss created a glyph on the step just below where Pyrrha was. When Pyrrha unknowingly stepped down onto the glyph, it slid to the side suddenly, causing Pyrrha to trip over herself and fall down two stairs to the floor. Luckily her Aura protected her, but she still looked at the stiars with confusion.

With the two fighters stepping up to their starting positions, Professor Goodwitch started the match and let the two fight.

Blake was worried about fighting Pyrrha for many reasons. The first and largest was that Pyrrha had turned herself into a nearly unstoppable force by trainined so much.

She knew she couldn't handle Pyrrha under normal circumstances, but if Pyrrha were to go off like she had on her opponents before fighting Weiss, then Blake would really need to take a few days to recover.

Just as Pyrrha jumped up to throw her spear, Blake raised both her hands up high and took a step back.

"I, uh. Surrender." She blurted out. Pyrrha didn't throw her spear and returned to the ground with a puzzled expression. "I'm too tired from training to much with Weiss that I can't hold my own in a fight, especially against Pyrrha. I'm sorry."

"Oh." Professor Goodwitch wasn't quite sure what to say, but she made her disappointment clear. "In that case, please return. If we make this fast, as can have Pyrrha fight someone before the end of class. Anyone else?"

* * *

 

After that, their little attacks on each other grew from simply showing up the other to petty pranks and defacing of the most minor and insignificant variety.

Of course, the first time someone mixed hair dye into Weiss' shampoo she was howling for a week, but it gave Pyrrha the idea to do it herself to Weiss, putting in dye that would turn Weiss's hair into the same shade of red that Pyrrha's hair was.

It was a cheap dye that only lasted a few days, but that was all Beacon needed to spread the rumor of Weiss secretly dying her hair white all the time to hide secretly red hair.

Weiss retaliated with bejeweling Pyrrha's battle armor with pink and green stones, a befitting nod to the other two conscious members of the team. Not only did the stone make her armor shimmer and reflect every bit of light in every possible direction, but it also led to her being easily detected during outdoor skirmishes.

Only in the span of a few short days did this battle of wits devolve into meaningless squabbling and hapless shows of superiority. Neither truly had the upper hand in this fight, but their own tactics led them into believing that they were the one on top.

The two could barely stand to be in the same room as one another, much less be within the line of sight. In class, they were forced to behave, but if they weren’t butting heads in the halls, they were avoiding each other completely, trying their best to draw the other into a trap.

It was another long afternoon after school, and Weiss was walking by herself through the halls. Her team had been acting weird ever since lunch. They were much more scarce than usual, strange since Ruby always tried to sneak in little bonding moments whenever physically possible. Now, like Blake, Ruby and Yang were gone without a trace in between classes, and those that the any of the girls did share with Weiss were much quieter as well.

It was of little concern. She needed to plan out her next move to stay on top of Pyrrha. She could glue magnets onto her armor, interfering with her semblance during training, grease the shaft of her spear, or perhaps replace the soles in her boots to much softer ones, guaranteeing at least some hilarity.

She snickered to herself, walking down the empty hall. Now that she thought about it, even Pyrrha’s own teammates mad made themselves scarce today. Something was obviously up, but she wasn’t going to withdraw from this battle to join Pyrrha in finding out what was going on. She had to figure it out on her own. 

It wasn’t like Pyrrha was jumping at the chance to sweettalk Weiss and become fast friends either.

Her head looked around to see if anyone else was in the area. The coast was clear, thank the heavens. With a moment all to herself, she visibly compressed and let out a long sigh. She knew what she was doing, but she still had to convince herself that her reasons weren’t the obvious ones.

“It’s not love.” She muttered to herself. “It’s gratitude. He saved me, I have to be there for him.”

It was almost like Pyrrha was always around to cause trouble whenever Weiss was thinking about Jaune, especially recently. The Scarlet Spartan was the only other figure in the hall, walking calmly towards Weiss.

Just by Pyrrha’s appearance and stoic air was something she hadn’t seen much of during their fights. It was only a brief few moments that seemed so long ago where Pyrrha seemed this calm and collected.

“Oh, hello, Pyrrha. What are you doing here?” Weiss tilted her head, but made no effort to move closer to Pyrrha. The Spartan closed the gap between the two with only a few steps between them.

Pyrrha didn’t have an answer right away. She chose to mull over her answer, and only when it seemed like she had taken enough of Weiss’ time did she finally answer.

“I was looking for you.”

Not only was Pyrrha’s posture and stance not nearly as relaxed and peppy as it once was, but her tone seemed calm and clear, as if nothing had happened in the past few months.

Weiss wasn’t even sure how to respond to this. It was the last thing she was expecting, and the confusion all over her face made that clear. “I…” She started, but quickly faded off without the correct words to articulate her thoughts.

Pyrrha was quiet once more, but instead of continuing her previous tone, her brows were quickly knit together, worry laced through her words. “I’m worried, Weiss. Everyone’s been avoiding me all day. Ren is as mysterious as ever, but Nora looks like she wants to talk. I’ve barely seen Ruby and Yang as well.” 

The Heiress had to nod in understanding. So, it wasn’t just Weiss that was being avoided. Was this their way of isolating them and getting them to be on good terms again? Wiess grew increasingly more furious with each passing moment. Her teammates had to be idiots to think that this sort of thing would work!

“Weiss.” There was something about the way that Pyrrha said her name with such empathy that made her forget her anger. It sounded just like the way Jaune would say her name back in the cell. Droned out, careful, all while his eyes stared right into hers. The single word made her relive all those conversations they had while trying to make the time pass and accept their situation.

She let out a high pitched yelp and jumped back, her eyes wide as the wave of memories flooded her mind. “No!” She blurted out. Her back foot swept out to take a low stance, but reality began to set back in. “I… I’m sorry.” Her shoulders lurched forward.

“We should,” Pyrrha took another step and tried to set them back on track. “We need to find out what’s going on. I don’t know where they could be, or what could be going on.

Again, Weiss nodded. She couldn’t agree more, and it helped her pride that Pyrrha was the one to approach her with this instead of her having to reach out to Pyrrha to find out what was going on.

The took to the halls, wandering about and hoping to run into anyone.

“We should, split up. One of us will find someone.” Pyrrha went out to suggest.

While she was surprised that Pyrrha was leading her along like this, the Spartan was once again right. Them splitting up meant they could cover more ground, and they had each other’s scroll numbers if anything of note happened.

A shared look between the two was all that was needed, and Weiss and Pyrrha separated quickly.

* * *

 

Pyrrha couldn’t believe how easy it was to get Weiss to split up. She figured that she would have wanted to stick around longer with Pyrrha just to make sure this wasn’t another horrible prank or anything, but this was genuine worry.

Before she got started on her search, she wanted to check in with Jaune. She hadn’t seen him at all today, and she had gotten into the habit of seeing him more.

Instead of walking down the normal halls, Pyrrha took a turn that would lead her down to the medical bay. Every time she looked at Jaune, her heart felt as if it were going to rip itself in two, but she needed to keep seeing him. Not only to see how he was recovering, but also to remind herself that this should never happen again. Every scar, every mark, it was to remind her how she wasn’t there for him, and how she would train and be better than everyone to keep this from happening again.

As she reached her desired hall, she noticed a little more commotion than normal. It was normally silent through these halls, but now there were a few nurses and doctors here and there, talking and walking through doors like a normal hospital. Something had to be happening, and her heart panged again as she considered the worst. Her eyes began to sting, her pace quickened. She had to get there now.

Shakily, her hands reached for her scroll, her fingers tapping as well as she could as she regressed to those dark days.

_“Weiss. Come to the medical Bay. Theres a lot of activity, and I fear the worst.”_

She sent the text and pocketed the scroll once more.

She knew where Jaune’s door was by instinct, and when she opened it, she saw something that she never expected.

“Nora? Ren?”

Not only were her two teammates standing there, but the room was packed. The rest of Weiss’ team, and even Professor Ozpin was standing in the cramped little room. Despite this, there was a clear walkway from the door to Jaune’s bed.

The machines still sounded off consistently, which eased most of her worries, but her eyes turned to Jaune and the light in her eyes dimmed just a little.

He was still asleep. His eyes still closed, as motionless as ever.

She didn’t even know that she was holding in a breath until it came out softly at this realization. With everyone here, she figured that he was awake.

She moved to the side of his bed, looming over him like any young woman head over heels for someone would be.

Minutes passed. Nobody spoke. Everything was still. Each moment passed, blended into the next seamlessly. But when two bright blue eyes revealed themselves, Pyrrha would forever remember this as an entire lifetime happening in the blink of an eye.

“Pyrrha?”

That voice. It called out to _her_. Her burning eyes released the floodgates and tears poured freely. She sobbed loudly and grossly. She bent forward and slung her arms over him. After everything, weeks of restraining herself and putting up the walls to keep herself from expressing herself to openly, all she needed was for him to say her name and all of that time and dedication to restraining herself crumbled away like water through paper.

She cried and cried, and with what strength he had, he whispered calming nothings into her ear. His intent was kind, but it only helped in making her cry more.

The others watched the scene, tearing up a little as well, but at this point, Ozpin was mysteriously gone from the room.

As more time passed, one of the students would leave the room, then two. Until all was left was Jaune and Pyrrha.

“Jaune!”

The choked-up voice of Weiss rang true, and the Heiress ran up and joined in the embrace. She too, like Pyrha, sobbed and cried freely. While Pyrrha was forced to adjust herself and even move a step away to give Weiss room, she did not fight her right now.

Eventually, the two did calm down, and felt safe enough to give the poor boy some space. Despite everything, he was still there.

Everything was going to be okay.


	9. Small talk

Jaune had sworn that he had seen this situation take place somewhere else. Five people standing in a room together, discussing the future of one’s life and how to proceed after some sort of monumental moment.

It had taken at least a solid hour for Jaune and Weiss to explain everything to both the Headmaster, Professor Ozpin, and his assistant and friend Professor Goodwitch. As for what had been going on in the last couple months, not much needed to be said to Jaune. Little had happened, but he couldn’t believe that so much time had passed, and that two of the most important women in his life were standing in the same room as him and the professors.

“With all due respect, Professor Ozpin,” Weiss, the white clad heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, cut in with her opinion as she looked at the two adults in the room. “I think that having Jaune resume classes is an awful idea.”

Glynda nodded but said little. She already had her talk with Ozpin before they met with the students. Unless there was anything they could add, there wasn’t much she could say that wasn’t stated before to the mysterious headmaster.

In turn, Ozpin’s response was not a response at all. He remained stoic and silent. He looked like a fine young man, bearing clean cut and chiseled features, but his eyes were those of a man who had seen everything up to the abyss and beyond.

An entire minute passed in silence. Weiss quickly grew angry, but when she opened her mouth to speak again, only then did Ozpin choose to converse.

“I understand,” He replied casually. “But Jaune has proven to be quite capable. His awakening was far tamer than others I’ve seen. Of course, his semblance does lend itself to that fact, but Jaune, from what you two have told us, has an incredibly strong will for having lasted so long under the blade of Neo.”

Jaune flinched at just the name. He remembered her face, that sickly sweet smile that twisted up every time she made an incision, broke his bones, and cut his tendons. Weiss, though still fearful of the little girl, had less of a reaction upon hearing her name again.

“What about her?” Jaune’s voice was soft and meek, still tired and dazed from his long slumber. “Neo. Did you find her or the thugs she was working with?”

There was another long silence from the headmaster. This one continued so long that Glynda had to step in and speak for him.

“Miss Xiao Long has assured us that the men working with Neo, and possibly also Roman Torchwick, are not those under the employment of Junior Xiong.” She explained with a drawn-out sigh. Sometimes it was almost better if Ozpin weren’t here, getting lost in his own mind all the time.

Jaune’s head snapped to look at Glynda. “Torchwick? He blurted out the name like it was poison on his tongue. “He got out of prison!?”

Chuckling, Ozpin shook his head. “No.” Was his easy reply to the question. “But we believe that Neo’s reasoning behind the ambush was as an act of revenge against Weiss and team RWBY. You were collateral damage, as it seems.”

Jaune grew quiet, his head sinking low. He remembered the fight. How outmanned and overpowered they were.

All three lowered their heads, all remembering where they were during the fight. Weiss and Jaune were back to back, and Pyrrha was with the rest of her team, fighting the droves of men that were after their heads.

Collateral. That’s all Jaune was to Neo when she had taken him. His fist clenched, his anger building.  He was just an extra piece when Weiss was the one she wanted.

“We’re… getting off track.” Pyrrha didn’t want to be rude, but they weren’t gathered here to talk about why Neo did what she did. That was done. The only useful topic was what to do next. “You brought Weiss and I in because…” She just wanted Ozpin to reiterate it, to remind everyone where they should be in the conversation.

Ozpin waited. He already knew what to say to Pyrrha, but this silence was because he wanted to take in her progression over the past week. Jaune had just woken up, but he had inspired change in her even when gone and comatose.

“Jaune’s schedule is going to be reworked to bring him up to speed regarding academics and combat. Most of his classes will remain the same, but at different times. every class he has for the rest of the year will include either, or both of you.”

Now this sounded familiar to Jaune. Not from real life experiences, but some of the sappier comics he had his hands on had similar situations, but normally with just one girl. Things got weird when more than one or two were involved, things better left for a different story.

Both Pyrrha and Wiess knew this, but Weiss cut in with a hit of worry at the edge of her words. “You’re putting Jaune in classes that Pyrrha and I respectively accel in, in order to make up for lost time and get him ready for the Vytal festival.” She wanted to make sure that they were on the exact same page, and when Ozpin nodded, Weiss set a foot forward in defiance.

“But that’s insane!” She continued, her worry becoming more and more vocal. “We still don’t know how Jaune’s semblance works, and what could happen if we pick up where he left off, and now you want him to engage in even more difficult classes? What would this do, Professor? Who is this helping by throwing Jaune into the fire like this?”

“Weiss.” Pyrrha spoke once more. “Professor Ozpin wouldn’t do this if he didn’t trust us to be able and willing to help Jaune.”

She had a point, and Weiss relented. Still, despite her and Pyrrha helping, they hadn’t even started looking to see what sort of mental damage Jaune might have sustained. Weiss was rushed off to get help as soon as possible, but Ozpin didn’t seem as interested in that method of recovery for Jaune.

Weiss’ hands rose in defense, her eyes darting between Pyrrha and the two elders in the room. “I’m just saying. As soon as I woke up, a psychiatrist was there to see how I was holding up to help me recuperate.”

“That’s what we’re here for.” Pyrrha reminded Weiss again, compelling her to be quiet. “There’s a lot of trust in this room. Professor Ozpin, Jaune, we’re the first ones there to do something if something happens.”

“That’s not to say he won’t be going through any evaluations, you two.” Glynda, though content, readied her riding crop as if to keep the two young girls silent while Jaune continued to soak in the information floating about. “Ozpin and I have been talking about this for a long time and wanted everyone on the same page before anything was set in motion. We don’t want anyone unprepared when things begin to happen.”

“But you didn’t talk to either of us.” Weiss interjected, still wanting at least some sort of victory over those in favor of putting Jaune back into it.

Gylnda tipped her head down, her eyes looking just over the top of her glasses. “Neither of you were ready to take that step.” She defended both herself and Ozpin. “Miss Schnee, you refused to even leave Jaune’s room for the longest time, and Miss Nikos was much too busy with becoming the perfect warrior to think about what would come next. Next being the road to Jaune’s recovery, since the two of you seem to be handling yourselves nicely.”

The two girls looked away, kidding their shame and embarrassment.

“Pyrrha…” Jaune’s voice was a hair above a whisper. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he had watched them during the conversation. She wasn’t the same woman that she was before the mission, and now he was finally starting to see what had happened to her, regardless if he understood it or not.

Ozpin turned his torso to the door, his legs still. “Well, we should be going.” He smiled as if everything was perfectly alright, ignoring the incredulous looks from Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha. “Glynda?”

“Shortly.” She bowed her head to him and watched the Headmaster leave the room without another sound. There was so much she knew about Ozpin, but some things were better left as a mystery. She could only hope to grasp at his intentions and translate them to the others.

“Children, I’m sorry, but this is what the Headmaster wants, and he’s quite stubborn when it comes to changing his own plans.” She wished things were different, but this was one of the few things she could speak about to them regarding Ozpin and his nature. “All of your teachers have been made aware of this and will be instructed on what to do if something does happen regarding him.”

“What does that even mean?” Weiss was continuously growing more and more annoyed at the strange and vague talk. “Why are we the ones that were chosen for this? There wasn’t anyone more qualified in the entire academy to oversee Jaune’s recuperation?”

Glynda’s eyebrows lifted, as if to think on this new angle, but she quickly smiled at the group, and took a page from Ozpin to not say more. “I should be going, as well. I do have classes to see. I’ll see you all in the future.” She almost sounded happy, as if she enjoyed watching Pyrrha blush and stammer, Weiss grow red for many reasons, and Jaune to remain as clueless as ever.

Poor kid.


End file.
